Mary died in June 2016 in her apartment at the age of 79. The primary cause of death was heart disease; chronic heat stress was ruled as a contributing cause, according to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner. The temperature inside her apartment was measured at 100 degrees around the time her body was discovered. Her daughter said she was found on June 29, 2016.

Mary did not like to run her air-conditioning unit often, Michelle said. Instead, her mother favored opening her windows and running fans.

Her apartment in Glendale was Section 8 housing, subsidized with help from the government. She had Social Security, but it was never enough. Because the apartment faced 67th Avenue near Bethany Home Road, Mary wouldn’t keep her windows open for too long. Street noise hissed through her open window. The exhaust smell from passing cars was overpowering.

A young Mary Ackenback pictured in an undated photograph.(Photo: Michelle Weiss)

Michelle said the heat never bothered her mom. Mary was originally from El Paso, Texas, and she loved the outdoors. She walked everywhere. She could play tennis for hours in the heat with no trouble at all.

It would have been hard to persuade Mary to turn the air conditioning on, even as temperatures in the Phoenix area that week topped out at 113 degrees. Mary’s stubbornness, her daughter said, “took her life.”

Besides tennis, Mary’s passion was religion. She attended traditional Latin Mass on Sundays and holy days. She crafted rosaries and sent them off to charities.

“The only thing that really gives me comfort: She’s where she wanted to be,” Michelle said. “She was so dedicated to her religion that she didn’t fear dying.”

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